Rakuten

Depending on your team, Rakuten can offer a great work-life balance. Compared to other Japanese companies, you likely won't be working much overtime here. Furthermore, English is widely spoken on most teams.

Rakuten is a kludgy amalgamation of Japanese and international business culture. Rather than effectively fusing the Japanese work ethic with western business efficiency, Rakuten often does the inverse. For instance, engineers responsible for user-facing software can expect mountains of paperwork and politicking to push through even a minor release. Some departments, for instance, require executive approval for any change to production whatsoever. Because it is so difficult to affect change, a miasma of lethargy lingers in most departments.

Rakuten is not a goal-oriented environment. You won't be judged on your output at this company. Rather, you will be judged based on attendance, punctuality, and appearances; and your salary will be adjusted accordingly. Rakuten uses electronic gates and other devices to track attendance. As an engineer, you are a mere galley slave of the executive leadership -- you wanted to live in Japan, and this is the price of admittance.

On the topic of attendance, Rakuten has taken the lead on return-to-office policies among tech companies in Japan. Rakuten began this process in March 2021 and currently requires all engineers to work from the office 4-5 days per week. Employee consensus was overwhelmingly opposed to this change, but their opinions were not solicited. Efforts by the employees themselves to gauge sentiment via surveys and the like were forcefully shut down by HR. The unwelcome return-to-office mandate has pushed annual turnover to record levels in many departments. Anecdotally, turnover in my department this year has been the highest I've observed in my career to date.

Rakuten's Q2 results were dismal, and as such, bonuses and compensation have been reduced. The CEO has made a series of ill-informed "investments" that have negatively impacted the company's bottom line. Rakuten's burn rate resembles that of a startup, yet its revenue growth is like that of a sluggish megacap utility company. Furthermore, Rakuten has squandered the generational opportunity of the pandemic to grow its e-commerce division's market share vis-à-vis Amazon.

Resign.